John Munson/The Star-LedgerSeton Hall pitcher Joe DiRocco, a Hanover Park grad, is 8-1 and has the Pirates in the postseason for the first time in 10 years.

Go back two years, and you could see the mind of a pitching ace develop.

The University of Connecticut baseball team was staying in East Hanover and went out to Miami Mike’s, a bar on Route 10, the night before playing Seton Hall. The patrons, who had watched Joe DiRocco pitch as a standout at Hanover Park, offered an earful about DiRocco’s right arm and what UConn could expect from the Pirates’ No. 1 starter.

Just before the game, a group of players came over to tell DiRocco what they’d heard about him.

“In my mind I’m thinking, ‘This is the worst thing I want him to hear before a big game,’” said Seton Hall pitching coach Phil Cundari, a Cliffside Park native who pitched in the Oakland Athletics’ organization for four years. “Needless to say, UConn puts up a big spot on him (in a 10-2 loss).

“If you’re not mature and really have a good perception of yourself and your circumstances, you can take your successes and it will allow you to get away in a game because the expectation is to live up to it so much.”

DiRocco finished that 2009 season with a record of 4-3 and a 4.46 ERA, and went 5-7 with a 5.05 ERA the next season.

Go back four days and you could see the mind of an ace completely focused.

Cundari and head coach Rob Sheppard had no doubt DiRocco would throw the most important Seton Hall baseball game in 10 years, on just three days rest, against St. John’s for the Big East Conference title in Clearwater, Fla. DiRocco yielded one run on six hits in six innings in a 4-2 victory, striking out four and pitching the Pirates into the NCAA Regionals, which start Friday.

The Pirates (33-23) face Arizona (36-19) at 1:35 p.m. in College Station, Texas.

Cundari knows how fragile and cluttered the mind of an ace can become. And he can say with certainty that DiRocco’s is in the right place.

“I’m just being more mature on the mound,” said DiRocco, who is 8-1 with a 1.68 ERA this season. “I’ve pitched here for four years now so I know what’s going on and stuff. Just being more mature on the mound and making better pitches.”

The scenes that had become commonplace over the last two years are almost nonexistent now.

No longer will DiRocco throw lights out in one start, then find himself with the bases loaded in the first inning of the next one, his command off-base and his pitches up in the strike zone.

A bad game now is when DiRocco leaves without getting the decision, Cundari said.

This year, DiRocco beat then No. 24 North Carolina and shut out Iowa. He has 78 strikeouts this season and held opponents to a .207 batting average in 112 2/3 innings.

“He felt he needed to prove something,” Sheppard said. “He had some goals he wanted to achieve and I know he had some lofty goals for himself and the team.”

This season was so good that DiRocco’s coaches — as well as a few draft-related sites — believe it put him in the conversation for the major-league draft, a prospect with a fringe possibility a year ago that now seems solidified.

His mother, Debbie, saw the momentum building.

“All the scouts, they’ve been there watching him and I think he’s caught the attention of a lot of people,” she said. “So I just hope they give him a chance at the dream and continue to impress at that level.”

All the better. Now the mind of an ace isn’t all that bothered about a backup plan — which would be criminal justice if pro baseball doesn’t work out. Instead, it continues uninterrupted.

“I felt good since Day One this year,” DiRocco said. “It just kept carrying over and just kept rolling from there.”